


pulled the jungle underground

by acrosticacrumpet



Category: Naruto
Genre: ALL THE ANGST, Angst, Gen, i was in a feminist rage and stuff happened
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-04
Updated: 2014-02-04
Packaged: 2018-01-11 04:37:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1168785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acrosticacrumpet/pseuds/acrosticacrumpet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Years in the future - but not many - Naruto wants to know why Sakura refuses to come back to Team Seven.</p>
            </blockquote>





	pulled the jungle underground

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by chapter 7 of Strix's gloriously painful fic Ricochet, so go check it out. Vaguely AU. I'll leave you guys to fill in the context for yourselves. Title from Owl City's "Kamikaze".

 

“Why won’t you _come back_?”

 

The question hung in the air like the smell of burning.

 

Sakura stood up, and she was shaking. She was _actually shaking_ , and this was bad, this was very bad, because Sakura was always easily moved by emotions but she never – quite – lost it, and now she was _losing it_.

 

“You want to know?” And that shake in her voice was new, that wet angry shake – “You really want to know why I can’t come back? I love you guys, I really do – you guys mean more to me than I can – I love you, OK, but _I can’t come back._ ”

 

“Why?”

 

“Because there’s no space for me!”

 

A pause.

 

“There is no space on that team for me, Naruto. There’s you with your _voice_ and your _jumpsuit_ and everything about you is _so goddamn loud_ , and don’t think I don’t know why that is, I might have missed it when I was twelve but not _now_ , and – and the issues, the _endless issues_ that follow you around the room _everywhere you go_ – your past takes up more space in the room than someone twice your age! And then there’s Sasuke, with his, his, his _manpain,_ I swear I can hardly _breathe_ under all that _angst_ and the weight of _everything he doesn’t say_ –”

 

“Sakura –”

 

“And then there’s Kakashi- _sensei_ , and _God only knows_ what’s going on his past but I swear I can’t _hear_ you two over the roar of everything he’s not _telling us_ , and I can’t, I _can’t_ be on a team with you guys, OK? I can’t do it, because there is just no space for me with all three of you on a team and every time I’m even in the same _room_ with you three I – _I can feel myself getting smaller._

 

“You think I was always the way I was on Team Seven? You think that’s how I got the top academic score in the Academy – you guys were great but you were _terrible for me_ , I’ve never been so small and so silly in my _life_ as I was when I was with you, I felt so small and you were all so big I could barely _breathe_ , let alone – let alone _grow_.”

 

Her eyes were wild, and there were no tears in them.

 

“Sakura- _chan_.” This time softer. “Please. You’re our teammate… I miss you.”

 

The anger written in her face and body was colder than any he’d ever seen from her, and this was bad, this was _really bad_ – “ _Don’t you dare call me your teammate._ Maybe you think that’s how it was but it _wasn’t_ , you guys _never_ saw me as a teammate so _don’t lie_ , Kakashi” – oh God, she dropped the – _sensei_ , this was really not good – “and Sasuke saw me as, as, as _dead weight_ and – I don’t know what I was to you, some kind of, of _princess_ to be protected and rescued and – you guys never _ever_ saw me as a teammate, you always saw me as the weak link and _that’s what I turned into_.”

 

“Sakura- _chan_ –”

 

“Just – go.” Now she just sounded tired, and as if she was about to cry and didn’t want anyone to see it. “Go away, Naruto. I can’t talk to you about this now. Maybe when I’ve had a bit more sleep and a lot more coffee –”

 

“OK. Just – we all miss you. Even Sasuke’s weird Uchiha grunts have been sounding grumpier than usual.” Maybe the joke wasn’t in good taste, but he didn’t know how else to respond.

 

“I know,” she said, even though she sounded like she didn’t. “I know. I’ll… think about it. Just – not right now, Naruto. Not right now.”


End file.
